(morning rituals - photo credit: icultist on Flickr) The fluidity of travel is a double-edged blade. It's one of the things I love most about it - that each day is different and you don't know what to expect. It pulls you into the present, encouraging you to pay attention to everything going on around...

On a basic level there are three general methods to simplifying your life: stopping expansion, reigning in your routine and reducing clutter. The easiest part of this process is stopping expansion. This means that in anticipation of vagabonding, you don’t add any new possessions to your life, regardless of how tempting they might seem.... While...

Having just come back from another great trip, I’m reminded again of the richness of Europe and the gifts it keeps on giving to any traveler willing to seek them out. I went to France on assignment for three mid-size, nationally-distributed magazines, and set to work almost immediately. It’s amazing how profoundly engrossing traveling and...

When it comes to travel on a shoestring - my favorite style - the amount of money you spend or save on accommodation becomes a serious matter. There was a time when travelling to China was very, very cheap, and accommodation options where everywhere. Unfortunately, with China experiencing the economic boom, things have changed quite...

A good traveler knows that it isn’t the number of places you’ve been that counts, it’s the number of meaningful experiences. Just like the saying, “it’s not the number of breaths you take that matters, it’s the number of moments that take your breath away.” Same with traveling. Miles mean little, so do stamps in...

As a first stop during my “charity discovery tour” in India I visited the village of Sujata, just behind Buddhist pilgrimage center – and Tibetan refugee colony – Bodhgaya , in Bihar state. If Bodhgaya is a bit more developed, although desperately poor, Sujata represents a real Bihar’s backwater: the kind of Indian village where...

I sat down and tried to calculate how much money I spent visiting India last year, my way: the balance is ridiculously low. India is a cheap country, yes, but this would not have been possible without a few tricks. Here is a lowdown on how I managed to spend 110$ for 6 weeks travelling...

Picture credit: Flickr/ Marcio Cabral de Moura Living in Asia and trying to have real, normal friends can often bring to “that” conversation topic: travel. And whenever I say I have been to 50 countries, my friends roll eyes and vent out some long, strange sounds before freezing in awe with open mouths. Then, their...

The subject of my life as a minimalist keeps coming up in conversations lately. I’m always a bit taken aback when someone suggests it, because I don’t think of myself as a minimalist at all. It’s true, I’ve lived out of a backpack, essentially, for over five years now. My whole life fits into one...

After I read this article about motorbike travel in Indonesia, I started thinking of my own experiences: I switched the focus from great memories of incredible biking trips around Southeast Asia and India, and I considered my actual situation. I concluded that I could not lead the same comfortable life if it wasn’t for an...

“But you’re just going to leave!” Although I hated to admit it, who said that was right. At the time I’d been seasonally migrating as a guide for four years. And had no intention to confine my adventurous spirit in domestic American life, then—if ever. The catch though was he was not American; Swedish born...

Who doesn't like getting a postcard in the mail? With the overwhelming evolution of technology, the act of putting pen to paper almost seems old-fashion. Words have the same definition whether typed or scrolled by hand. But handwriting can reveal clues about an individuals personality where digital text lacks that touch. Years ago I discovered...

I have been on the road for nine months straight as I write, and I have slowly noticed how I changed my budget habits overtime. Initially, I had a big plan, quite a small budget, and an indicative daily expense limit that would make most people laugh – or faint. I was mostly successful in...

Recently I’ve been reading, “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed . When the author was in her mid-twenties she solo hiked the Pacific Crest Trail . Her book unfolds as she treks north, nursing her blistered feet and cumbersome heavy pack along a majority of the 2,663mi (4,286km) trail. It initially begins at the Mexican border, passes...

As I am thumbing my way across the Central Asian republics, I made a very much welcome discovery by typing “hitching to Dushanbe” in Google. What I found was a bit puzzling, at first: I would have never thought that a volatile, hazardous and utterly non-scientific art such as hitching a ride could have a...

The Paris Review is running a blog series called “ Windows on the World ” and asking writers peppered across the globe what they see outside their window. Which reminded me that part of my favorite thing about traveling is the view outside the window changes. Even beyond seeing, different ones let in various smells,...

It's easy to think "travel" and associate it only with the exotic. I imagine exciting exploration, far corners of the earth, and passports filled to the brim. While there are many kinds of travel, we usually don't associate the same sort of "adventure" with life back at home. This poses a problem, a crisis, even,...

Yesterday I came across this article that addressed updating Child Labor Laws in America. And tried desperately to wrap my brain around a logical explanation, why restricting youths from agricultural involvement was a good idea. After a period of extreme frustration with the absurdity of the issue; I settled with the fact at its core,...

One of the fun parts of travel is getting out and trying to navigate a foreign city on your own. Many travelers relish the simple task of trying to navigate public transit from the airport to the hostel where they are staying. There is simply a fresh zeal to figuring the workings of local buses...

Cairo, Egypt When I returned to the United States this past weekend after spending six weeks in the Middle East, I didn’t have all that much in my backpack. One thing I had almost packed but didn’t was a chunk of rock. It was one of thousands thrown outside my Cairo hostel, by Tahrir Square,...